It has been a good 11 months since I started this petition and it has garnered more than 1.1 lakh supporters who identify with the cause. I thank all of you for your support and encouragement. I am running the Full marathon at the next edition of Tata Mumbai Marathon (TMM) on 20th January. This will be my 7th FM at Mumbai and I am hopeful to see significant increase in its green quotient.

If you are a long distance runner, planning to run the upcoming Mumbai marathon, I would request your support in the following ways:.

1. Sport a green ribbon/ band on your wrist on the race day to show your support towards a green and plastic waste free TMM.
2. Ask your runner friends to show support by wearing a green ribbon on their wrist during the race.
3. Carry your own bottle, especially if you are running 10k. Alas, half and full marathon runners, cannot carry all the water they need, hence their green quotient depends much on the organizers providing well managed green aid stations with water refills and well trained aid station volunteers.
4. Please do not litter. Use the trash cans so that collection of waste is easier on the waste pickers.
5. Request Procam international on their tweet handle @procamrunning and FB page to implement the asks in this petition with the hashtags #RunGreen and #BeatThePlasticPollution

Here are my 5 asks in the original petition: https://www.change.org/p/procamrunning-tatamummarathon-cm-fadnavis-green-the-mumbai-marathon-by-eliminating-all-single-use-plastic

Why should Procam act on this petition:

• Precedent has been set - These asks have been implemented in various other large city marathons in the country and I believe there is no reason why a prestigious race organizer such as Procam International cannot do the same.
• If India were to be free of single use plastic by 2022, as announced by our PM recently, how can we gloss over the tonnes of plastic waste produced by this mass event in a matter of few hours? Here is a link to the analysis of TMM 2018 waste audit - https://www.change.org/p/procamrunning-tatamummarathon-cm-fadnavis-green-the-mumbai-marathon-by-eliminating-all-single-use-plastic/u/22476151
• The event must comply with the Maharashtra state plastic ban rules that came into force last year. 
• This event raises crores of rupees for many charities, some of them fight for environment conservation and some work against cancer and for health. The huge plastic waste footprint ironically offsets this good work.

I will be wearing a green ribbon on my every run till 20th January and also during the race. I will appreciate your support if you display a ribbon during TMM. You can get these ribbons (1 inch width, green satin, 30-40 cms long) at most stationery stores. Alternatively, runners from Bengaluru can collect from me.

Like many of you, I will do my part by carrying my bottle on my run. But that is only half the work done. The other half of the effort lies with the organizers in providing refill stations, without which the hope of a plastic free run will remain a dream.

About the petitioner: Shilpi Sahu is a recreational runner from Bengaluru. An engineer by profession, she likes to minimize generating single use plastic waste in her everyday life including runs. She ran her full marathon personal best at Bengaluru marathon this year (which was a green run) and hopes to better it at the upcoming Mumbai marathon. She believes that if one can train to run 42.2 kms, running with a small bottle and refilling on the go is only a small part of that training.